T20 World Cup: England elect to bowl first against India in rain-hit second semifinal

Georgetown (Guyana), June 27 (IANS) Defending champions England won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the second semifinal of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Providence Stadium here on Thursday. The coin toss was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes due to rain and wet outfield.

India hold a slight 12-11 edge over England in all T20I meetings between these sides. In terms of T20 World Cup meetings, the record is evenly split at 2-2. The winner of Thursday’s semifinal will face South Africa in the final at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Saturday.

Thursday’s clash is a rematch of the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup semifinal at Adelaide, where England thrashed India by ten wickets. After winning the toss, England skipper Jos Buttler said his playing eleven is unchanged from their ten-wicket win in the Super Eight stage over the USA.

“It looks like a decent surface, everyone’s talked about some low bounce here but with the rain around this morning, we think bowling first is an advantage. I hope so (peaking at the right time), but we’re up against a brilliant team today so we’ve got to be at our best.”

“We are proud of our consistency in recent T20 World Cups, but we are desperate to go all the way here. We’re looking forward to a big challenge today against a great side. We’re all very excited. A few of us have been in these situations before so we know what to expect and hope we are in for a good game,” he said.

India captain Rohit Sharma said he would have batted first if the toss had been in his Favour while adding that he’s sticking with the same combination that won all three matches in the Super Eight stage.

“It looks like good weather now; the weather seems clear now. It’s a big game and we want to put runs on the board. It looks a little dry, I hope as the game goes on it gets slower and slower.”

“We’ve managed pretty well with all the travelling. We need to get the job done now. It’s a great opportunity for us. The mantra for us is to take things as they come, stay in the moment and let our ability do the talking,” he said.

For the completion of the second semifinal, an extra 250 minutes have been allotted due to the provision of no reserve day. If rain comes later and causes a washout, then India will progress to the final owing to them finishing as the top-ranked side in Group 1 of the Super Eight stage.

Playing XIs:

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah.

England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (captain & wk), Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid and Reece Topley.

–IANS

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